


Partners in Crime Solving

by SugarAndSlice



Series: Deviation Detected [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Father-Son Relationship, Gavin is an asshole, Gen, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-02 03:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20610941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarAndSlice/pseuds/SugarAndSlice
Summary: Gavin is forced to work with his least favourite detective in search of a murderer.





	1. The Partner

Gavin usually didn’t mind the business of the bullpen. Despite preferring the quiet over the background noise, he pretty much couldn’t care less. It often gave the Detroit Police Department a more alive feeling.

Usually.

Today as Gavin walked in for work the entire precinct was way too busy to be considered background noise. Rapid keyboard clicking, hurried footstep, overlapping voices and continuous phone wringing completely filled the space, and Gavin just found it overwhelming. Over the last few months it had gotten slowly busier, but it seemed like all that build up overlapped and created the most hectic scene the precinct had seen for years now, scratch the deviant uprising.

The first few things Gavin noticed as he walked in were the empty desks and overwhelming paperwork on the desks of the officers who were still here. He saw Tina groan before dropping her head into her hands, a noticeable stack of files stacked up and splayed all over her desk. Officer Wilson and Person’s desks were equally as covered, though those two were taking a much more organised approach to their desk layout. Ben wasn’t at his desk either, and as Gavin walks over to his own desk, he sees that Hank and Connor’s desks are empty as well.

_That _was a relief. He didn’t need that blue-blooded asshole distracting him from what was sure to be a busy day, and he could do without Hank being so overly defensive of his stupid android.

Gavin sighs as he drops his bag and slumps into his chair, his eyes suddenly quite heavy as he starts reaching over to open his computer. He’d only been sitting for 3 seconds before Fowler opens his office doors, poking his head out to look around the bullpen quickly before locking eyes with Gavin.

“My office, Reed.” He shouts over the auditory chaos that was the current precinct, and Gavin just groans even louder.

“Welcome to the team.” Tina chirps as Gavin stands up and walks past her, only for Gavin to give her the bird as he makes it to the captain’s office. He blinks a few times while opening the door in an attempt to focus his sleep-deprived vision only to be instantly awoken that might as well have been nails on a chalkboard.

“Good morning Detective Reed.” Connor says, and Gavin’s eyes shoot open. Sitting across from Jeffery in one of the two guest chairs in this office, was Connor.

Fucking Connor.

“Reed, sit.” The captain orders before Gavin can say his immediate complaints, which he just turns into an annoyed grump before plopping down in the spare chair. Gavin does a quick look over the figure sitting next to him, just to double check that he wasn’t going insane and maybe it was someone else next to him. Anyone else.

Gavin looked at Connor’s straight and perfect posture, unrumpled and clean Cyberlife jacket, his dumb perfectly clean hair and his stupid permanently well-rested face.

God damnit.

“As you probably have already noticed we are unbelievably overworked today. Cases over the last few months have boiled over and everything just happened to come to a crux on the same fucking day. Now before you say a single thing, Reed, you and Connor are our only available detectives. Hank is working on his red ice case with Ben, so you two are going to be paired up for this. A homicide was reported ten minutes ago, and I need you and Connor on it immediately.” Fowler continued while Gavin gave him a death stare that could kill someone. Scratch that, ten people.

“I know that ever since Connor came here as a real detective instead as just help on the deviant cases you’ve been avoiding working with him, but it has been so goddamn crazy today that you’re just going to have to suck it up. I don’t give a shit about your prejudice or whatever, Gavin, but I need you on this. Got it?” Fowler finishes, to which Gavin just responds with a confirming and silent nod. “Good. You’ve got more experience so you’ll be the primary for this case. Connor has the details, so he can tell you what’s happening on the way.” The captain gives Connor a nod, and the android stands up and walks towards the door. “I look forwards to working with you, Detective Reed.” He says as he leaves, and Gavin whips around in his chair to catch a small smirk on the robot detective’s face.

_Motherfucker._

“Fowler-”

“Gavin, I don’t want to hear it right now. Just get going.” Jeffery cut him off immediately, leaving Gavin unbelievably frustrated. And tired. And hungry.

This day was the fucking worst.

Gavin huffs out of the office, and whatever quip Tina was about to say was killed in her throat by Gavin’s pure look of rage. She keeps quiet and just shoots him a devilish grin.

Gavin leaves the precinct and turns into the parking lot. He feels himself get even more upset with the fact that the clouds were much too dark, making him already pissed off at the definite rain shower that’ll happen later.

He finds himself walking to the nearest police car where Connor is chilling in the passenger seat tossing a quarter between his fingers. The sound of the coin bouncing and spinning about in the android’s hands was an added layer to the pure anger Gavin felt, and as soon as he sat down in the driver’s seat and slammed the door he reaches over and grabs the coin out of Connor’s hands.

“Listen here, dipshit. I’m already fucking done with everything, and it’s not even noon. I’m tired and ready to fucking combust, and I will not hesitate to break your dumb fucking plastic casing if you do anything to make this day worse for me. Hank isn’t here to protect you, so stay out. Of. My. Way.” Gavin’s voice trembles with rage as he shoves Connor’s quarter into his pocket. He feels his own chest heaving as he releases the anger that’s built up inside him over the last few minutes, and he feels his face flush from the heat that his frustration caused.

Connor turns to Gavin, his LED yellow as he thinks over what Gavin had just said, before his LED turns blue as he gives Gavin a calm look. Not the look Gavin was hoping to get out of the android.

“I have done nothing wrong around you this morning until just now when you took away my coin, and my existence seems to just make you incredibly mad. I’ve seen you act completely comfortably around our receptionist androids, so why do you hate me in particular? You have no real excuse to be this frustrated with me since you’ve taken no time to consider me in a different light. Before you respond, Detective Reed, do keep in mind that I got through to Hank, who despised me with every inch of his human being. I am very used to ungrateful cops, and I can now think for myself, so your words no longer make me question my programming.” Connor spoke in a collected tone, and his words hit Gavin across the face.

“You mother fucker.” Gavin growls while he turns on the car, his face reheating as he pulls out of the parking lot. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Connor smirk to himself, which just makes Gavin more frustrated.

“Tell me where we’re going because I need a coffee.” Gavin scowled as he drove, turning down the corner to his favourite coffee store.

\----------------------------------------

Gavin had cooled off a little by the time they reached the crime scene, though only a little. As he steps out of the car, coffee in hand, he sees the familiar sight of holographic police tape sectioning off an alleyway, where a couple other officers were writing things down and making calls. Gavin flashes his badge to the nearest cop before walking through the police tape and down further into the alley. Connor followed behind him, keeping himself a comfortable amount of space away from Gavin, which he could somewhat appreciate. Somewhat. Their conversation in the car still hung around Gavin’s head, reminding him to get back at the android for it after they get back to the precinct.

Gavin finally reached the two other officers who were standing at the body. It was a human man slumped against the wall, curled in over itself with a large bullet wound going directly through the neck, red blood splattered over the man’s chest and shoulders, as well as the back wall. Trails of blood were bubbled over the man’s lips, clear signs of struggled breathing.

“Old woman heard the shot and called it in, too scared to investigate. We’ve yet to identify him.” The officer told Gavin, who nodded in acknowledgement. “We’ll take it from here.” He says to the officers, who both turn with a nod back to the others. Connor gives them a polite smile before kneeling down to get a better look at the body, his LED changing to yellow as he surveys the body. Gavin says nothing as he watches the android take in the corpse’s information.

“Adrian Smith, 44. Former Cyberlife employee, currently unemployed.” Connor says, reaching out to a small puddle of blood near the base of the body with two fingers.

“Fucking CMON!” Gavin exclaims as Connor ‘analyses’ the blood by placing his fingers in his mouth. Connor’s LED remains yellow for another moment before going back to blue as he stands up, pulling out a small tissue from his jacket to wipe the blood off of his fingers. “You already know that this is how I analyse blood, detective. I understand that it’s uncomfortable. Once again, I’ve worked with Hank.” He says as he folds his little tissue into a small square so the blood won’t touch the inside of his jacket pockets as he puts it away. Gavin groans again and takes a look around the body, only to be interrupted by a large water droplet landing directly on his nose.

“God damnit, alright we gotta go. Take pictures or whatever with your head so we can get back to the precinct to- What are you doing?” Gavin turns back to Connor, who was now looking further down the alley at the ground.

“There are footprints, Detective Reed. Very faint footsteps, but they’re slightly tinted with Adrian’s blood.” Connor responds, slowly making his way further down the alley.

“Shit, seriously?” Gavin asks, walking over to where Connor was pointing. Sure enough there were unbelievably faint footsteps on the pavement.

“It unfortunately runs out just at around here, but I can get sixty percent of the footprint.” Connor says, his LED shifting back to yellow as he stares down at the floor.

“Fuckin, fine. Hurry up and get back to the car once you’re done.” Gavin grumbles, turning around and walking back to their police car. He watches Connor stand back up and follow him out of the alley back towards the car, giving a small wave of goodbye to the other officers.

Gavin and Connor get back into the car and go back to the station just as the rain starts to fall in sheets.

“I asked the officers of the scene to give me the information of the woman who called it in, so we can question her later.” Connor says passively, glancing outside the window while tapping his fingers on his knees.

“Good. Now shut the fuck up until we get back to the precinct.” Gavin says, taking a long sip of his coffee.

“One more thing before I’ll leave you in your preferred silence.” Connor says. “As we were entering the car, I decided to run Adrian’s name through the Cyberlife employee database and found something rather interesting. Adrian Smith was part of a very exclusive android development team.”

“Is this pertinent information?” Gavin huffed.

“I would say yes, Gavin. He was part of the team who helped dispose of leftover androids who were deemed ineffective. Our murderer was most likely one of the few survivors of the Graveyard. I’ll run this information by Markus to see if he can tell us anything. Seems like good motive.” Connor points out, and Gavin thinks for a minute.

“And that couldn’t have waited for us to get to the precinct? Fuckin’ Hell, how does Hank stand you?” Gavin complains.

“I’d say that it’s my charming personality, but you don’t think I have a personality, do you?” Connor says. “Guess he just likes me for my charming programming.”

Gavin had to fight the urge to strangle the android as Connor flashed Gavin a cocky wink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's gonna be a multi-chapter homicide story focusing mainly on Gavin and Connor, but more characters will show up as the fic progresses. Hope you enjoyed!


	2. The Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor and Gavin find themselves on patrol, only for it to derail.

Connor was originally hesitant when it came to working with Gavin on this case, though Hank’s advice in teasing the detective had been pretty funny. The way Gavin would blow up so easily was amusing in the start, though after three days of consecutive murders, Connor stopped egging him on. What had originally seemed like a simple murder case was clearly becoming a serial killer investigation.

Three bodies, all previous Cyberlife disposal workers, all shot in the throat. One per day since the first one was discovered, and there were no witnesses. Gavin and Connor had started doing patrols in the areas where more ex-Cyberlife employees lived, though it hadn’t helped.

“We’re wasting time just driving around.” Gavin huffs while turning down another street corner, looking down every alley he passed. Connor sat still, surveying every alley on his side of the road as they cruised down the street. The clouded over sky gave the area a rather gloomy feeling, making the alleys darker to see through.

“Trust me, Detective Reed, this is no waste of time. Even if we don’t find anyone while doing this the mere presence of our police vehicle might be enough to deter our attacker.” Connor says, looking down another alley. Gavin groaned and turned another corner, even more deserted than the former road.

“Why couldn’t we get the other officers to do this again? This is their fuckin’ job.” Gavin says, slowing to a stop at a stop sign on the corner for a moment before continuing.

“I have a much larger scanning range than the average officer, so I thought it would be best if I helped with the search.” Connor replies, to which Gavin scowls and turns another corner.

“We’ve been out here for half an hour. I’m done. I’m the primary of this case so you shut up until we get back to the precinct. This is a useless waste of time.” Gavin says, agitated. Connor sighs and concentrates on watching the alleyways.

“Whatever you say, Detec-”

A gunshot rings out through the air.

Connor doesn’t spare a beat and immediately pinpoints the location of the shot.

“There!” Connor points down the street, nearly leaping out of the car as Gavin pulls up to the side of the road. He hears Gavin mumble a few curse words as he jumps out of the car as well, pulling his gun out of his holster. Connor is already taking off to the alley just a block down the street with Gavin following a few feet behind him.

“I’ll go around!” Gavin shouts as he turns down the alley before the one where the shot was fired. Connor watches as Gavin disappears around the corner before speeding ahead. He quickly transmits a backup request to the Detroit Police Department before turning down the alley where he had located the shot.

Connor sees a figure hastily climbing over a large chain-link fence that’s blocking this alley off from the one to the left, as well as the crumpled body of one of the employees they were checking in on.

_Mission Objective: Apprehend Suspect_

Connor is immediately at the fence, climbing it in a swift motion in pursuit of the deviant. Just as Connor lands at the base of the fence, however, he looks up to see nobody. A few dumpsters and various pieces of litter fill the dark alley Connor found himself in, and a few different connected alleyway corners were further down.

As Connor scans the area for clues he hears Gavin’s breaths approach from behind him.

“You lost them? Are you fucking serious?”

“No Detective Reed, it’s close. It’s an android, though I didn’t get the chance to scan it’s model number.”

Gavin tucks his gun away with a grunt before scaling the fence, not nearly as graceful as Connor. He lands with a small thud and instantly pulls out his gun. Connor does the same, and the two slowly start walking forwards in unison, step after step.

The silence becomes overbearing quickly, and every single noise made the two detectives flinch ever so slightly. The muffled sound of passing cars became uncomfortable white noise as Gavin and Connor took turns checking the attached alleyways, leaping out from behind the corners and holding up a defensive gun.

It was during one of these corner checks when the silence was broken.

Gavin had turned the corner holding his gun defensively outwards from his body when his eyes shot open in alarm with the immediate sight before him, followed by the silence-shattering sound of a gun being fired.

Connor had less than a second to react, his pre-construction instantly kicking in. The scenarios that displayed themselves across his vision were full of warnings and percentages, but only one message remained stationed in the center of his vision.

_Mission Objective: Protect Detective Reed_

Connor doesn’t stop for a second before running forwards and knocking Gavin to the ground as the bullet flies through the air and catches Connor just below his jaw. Thirium immediately splatters the front of his suit as he sees damage warnings flare up across his entire field of vision, and he strains to keep himself concentrated on the task at hand. He looks down to see Gavin, who still hasn’t fully registered what’s happened, and is satisfied with the state of the detective.

_Thirium Levels: 93%_

_Auditory Communications Biocomponent: Damaged_

_Mission Objective: <strike>Protect Detective Reed</strike>_

_Mission Objective: Apprehend suspect_

Connor immediately turns back and sees the suspect, scanning it instantly. It was an android, holding a gun in outstretched and shaky hands as it stares in shock at Connor. Its jacket displays a scratched-out model number of ‘NS400’, and the entirety of the jacket is coated in dirt and human blood. The android’s face was severely damaged on the left side, almost like it was cleaved in half. Various wires and thirium lines fell out of the left side of its head, falling messily on their tarnished jacket shoulder. All of the android’s synthetic skin was deactivated, showing large dark bloodstains soaked into the android’s carbon exterior.

_ _

“H#=%&, @//- “Connor starts to speak, but garbled static is all that leaves his mouth. He holds his gun out to the android as Gavin slowly starts to stand back up, holding out his gun as well. He gives Connor a look before registering his shot throat, turning back to the suspect.

“You are under arrest!” Gavin starts, only to be immediately cut off by the NS400. Connor sees distant red-and-blue flashing lights through the chain-link fence at the edge of this alleyway, though luckily it seemed that the NS400 hadn’t noticed them yet.

“Shut up! Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot! I’ll kill you, understand?” They scream, their voice crackling in and out of a glitched state. Gavin doesn’t stop and continues to slowly approach. “Put the gun down immediately. Resisting arrest will ensure that you’re given a longer sentence!” Gavin shouts, and Connor immediately watches as the NS400’s stress levels raise to 87%.

“D^$%#-” Connor tries to speak again, reaching out to grab Gavin’s shoulder with concern. _Stop approaching the suspect! _He desperately wanted to say, but Gavin just turned to Connor with a frustrated look as he shook free of Connor’s grasp. Gavin was only distracted momentarily but that’s all the NS400 needed to fire off another shot. The bullet flies directly at Connor and hits his torso, and he can’t take it anymore. He’d already done his best to try and redirect the pain from his neck elsewhere, though the bullet wound made him double over in intense pain. Warning signs filled his vision and the audio around him was immediately drowned out by a long and intense wringing as he fell to the ground.

_Thirium Levels: 84%_

_Thirium Pump Regulator: Damaged_

_Shutdown Immanent: 5:34_

_5:33_

_5:32_

Connor began to shake as his vision clouded over in warnings. His hearing was starting to return slowly as he caught snippets of conversation.

“-took a bullet to his neck and his chest. Fuck, just get him stabilised or some shit!” Gavin’s voice was the clearest as it cut through the ringing and the static. Connor opened his eyes slowly, unaware that they had originally closed, and saw multiple officers coming towards him with a stretcher. He glanced around slightly and saw the NS400, doubled over with multiple wounds.

When had more shots been fired?

_4:45_

_4:44_

“He’s losing so much thirium. We’re taking him to the AER.” One person says as Connor is lifted onto the stretcher, his vision starting to fade in and out of black.

“G*#+>…” Connor’s static voice rang in his own ears, and he closed his eyes in a grimace. The pain the rest of his body felt was so immense.

He hears some drowned out voices as his vision fades completely to black.

* * *

Connor awoke with a start, flinching as he jumped slightly in his bed. He grimaced as he felt immediate pain in his throat and chest. He let his eyes adjust to the room around him, taking in the pale walls and incredibly clean decor. In a state of mild panic, he glanced around the room quickly before immediately feeling a hand on his shoulder.

“Easy, son, easy. You’re ok.” Hank’s calm voice rung slightly in Connor’s ear, but only for a moment. Connor blinks a few times, registering Hank’s voice and leaning back down onto his bed.

“--” Connor tries to speak, but no noise whatsoever comes out of his mouth. Hank sighs and looks across Connor at a few screens that were stationed on the opposite side of the bed, scanning the android’s vitals before turning back to Connor. “Don’t worry, you’re alright now. You got shot twice, one in your voice-box thing and another in your uh... thirium pump regulator is what I think the doctor said. You’ll get your voice back in about a day, they’re just finishing repairs.”

Connor looks down at his chest. It’s currently being covered by the sheets of his bed, but he can clearly see thick clear thirium-tubes running from underneath the blanket down into a larger thirium storage and dispensary chamber. Connor gives Hank a look of concern.

“Yeah, your thirium pump regulator is also in for repairs, and until they finish with it, you’re gonna have to sit tight and let that machine do the regulating for you.” Hank sighs and leans back in the chair sitting next to Connor’s bed.

Connor sits for a moment and lets out a frustrated and silent sigh before laying his head back on his pillow, now suddenly very tired. His eyelids get heavy as he feels his body entering rest stasis. He gives Hank a small smile before drifting off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story isn't over yet! There will be either one or 2 more chapters to this to wrap it up, so stay tuned!


	3. The Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin goes to visit Connor in the AER.

Hank stretched out his back as he refilled his coffee mug at the Android Emergency Repair centre’s lacklustre hot bar. He’d gotten used to the overbearing burnt taste of the coffee and the repetitive takeout over the last week he’s stayed here, and he was glad that he was going to be able to leave soon. Connor had been getting better by the day, and they’d just finished repairs on his voice biocomponent.

Connor had been unconscious for five days. The constant yellow flickering of his LED and beeping of the machinery keeping him alive hung to the corners of Hank’s mind, keeping him up at night with worry and making it even harder to fall asleep in the AER’s garbage spare bedroom. Hank hadn’t had to deal with medical worry like this ever since…

… Well, since.

Hank hated it.

Thoughts of everything that could happen while Connor laid there prayed upon his brain whenever he wasn’t actively doing something to distract him, and even that sometimes wasn’t enough. Luckily some friends stopped by a few times to check up on him. Tina and Chris came a couple times with some lunch to chat about what was happening at the precinct, Ben said hi and came around to give Hank some good coffee, Wilson and Person dropped off some coupons for a nearby pizza place for when Hank got hungry, and even Jeffery came by one morning to say hello. Hank was grateful whenever anyone came to check in.

Then there was yesterday, when Connor woke up. It had only been for a few moments, but seeing him moving and trying to speak had almost instantly relieved the worry he’d had ever since Connor was admitted. His LED had changed to blue for a moment while he’d been awake, and even though it went right back to yellow after he fell asleep, that small shift was enough for Hank to know that he was ok.

The fact that Connor had been so close to shutting down was mortifying. Hank had spoken to Connor’s mechanic/doctor and she’d told him that Connor only had had around three minutes left before they stabilised him, and it took a solid 24 hours for him to finally get back to full thirium. His damaged thirium pump regulator was taken out immediately and repairs were still in process, despite it being six days. The technician said they’re super finicky and that it’ll take longer than usual since Connor is the last RK800 model still active there aren’t any spare parts for him. Currently this random machine was hooked up to him to temporarily replace his thirium pump regulator, which couldn’t be comfortable.

Hank takes a sip of his coffee as he starts walking back down the hall towards Connor’s room.

Yep, still burnt.

As Hank continues down the hallway, he notices a familiar figure standing in front of the elevators for this floor. They’re tapping at their phone and are leaning against the wall, and they look uncomfortable.

“Gavin? The Hell you doing here?”

Gavin stood abruptly and put his phone back into his pocket as his eyes landed on Hank.

“Uh, what does it look like I’m doin’?” He responds, irritated. Hank just rolls his eyes and takes another sip of his coffee.

“Standing in the hallway like an ass would be my best guess. Care to correct me?” Hank chuckles slightly to himself. Gavin adjusts his jacket slightly and ‘tsks’ through his teeth.

“Jackass. Tina said it was my turn to check on you but I only remembered the floor you were on, so I was just texting her to get the room number.” He replies, avoiding Hank’s skeptical look. Hank lowered his coffee mug.

“Well, here I am. Thanks for checking in.” Hank says, staring directly at Gavin. He watches as the other detective shuffles a little on his feet. It’s so subtle, but Hank’s been working with Gavin for far too long to not notice. “Is that everything?”

Gavin just continues to avoid eye-contact as he seemingly grows more and more annoyed.

“Well, since I already drove all the way here…” He starts, and Hank rolls his eyes again.

“He got hit by two bullets, one was from stopping me from getting shot. I’m not that much of an asshole.” Gavin says, rather defeated.

“Debatable”

“Fuck you. What’s the room number?”

Hank laughs to himself and walks past Gavin, who starts to follow behind him. As they reach Connor’s room, Gavin walks in front of Hank just as they’re about to enter.

“Could I… Is he awake?” Gavin asks, and Hank just sighs a little, looking through the crack in the door at Connor’s resting face, his LED’s light glowing softly.

“Eh, he’s only woken up once and that was yesterday. If he does wake up his voice box hasn’t been reinstalled yet, so he can’t talk.” Hank replies.

“So could I like… have a few seconds?” Gavin asks, and Hank just sighs. He starts to walk to the other side of the door to sit down in one of the hallway chairs. “Yeah, just don’t touch anything.” He says, drinking some more coffee. Gavin gives a small nod before wordlessly enters the room.

Hank sat for a moment before he heard Gavin’s very faint voice coming through the small crack in the door that Gavin had forgotten to properly close.

He didn’t eavesdrop. Despite not respecting Gavin in the slightest, whatever he was saying was meant for Connor’s ears only, and not his. He sat silently and focused his hearing on the distant footsteps of working and visiting androids and people as finished his coffee.

It was a few minutes before Gavin reappeared at the door.

“See you Thursday then. I’ll let Tina know you haven’t died.” Gavin murmurs as he walks past Hank back towards the elevators.

“Great.” Hank replies, going back into Connor’s room.

He looked like he was still in rest stasis, his LED shining yellow as it had been beforehand. Though Hank caught sight of it shifting to blue only for a moment as he’d entered the room. Hank sat back down in his chair and placed his now empty mug of coffee back on his side table.

“Only a few more days, bud.” He sighs, patting Connor’s shoulder lightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go! :D


	4. The Kitchen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor surprises Gavin at work.

Gavin was in the middle of a report when he saw Connor and Hank walk in through the door. It had been a few days since he’d gone to visit the AER and Connor was looking pretty decent. He was looking normal, actually, despite getting shot twice. Perks of being a robot, Gavin thought as he watched the two detectives sit down at their respective desks. He continued to just watch them as the rest of his fellow officers walked over to say hi to Connor, who was starting to look overwhelmed.

Gavin looked away and back to his report. He’d already said his piece, and even if Connor didn’t hear him since he was unconscious, that still counted.

Gavin tried to focus on his report, but his mind started to betray him by bringing back the annoying thoughts he’d had in his head since the incident.

Connor could have shut down. He was minutes from it in fact, and all because he took the bullets for him. It made Gavin actually feel… bad for once.

Which fucking sucked.

Connor was a robot. Nothing more.

But… after everything that’s happened, Gavin knew he was wrong.

He groans and looks into his hands. The more time he spent staring at a dumb report the more time he’d spend feeling feelings. He needed coffee.

Gavin stands up and makes his way to the kitchen, where it is comfortably empty. He saunters up to the coffee machine and does everything in his power to concentrate on the dispensing coffee instead of on his own feelings.

Fuck feelings.

Just as the cup fills to the brim Gavin lifts it to his mouth to take a sip.

“Hey dipshit… you awake?”

Gavin immediately spits out a bit of his coffee as he hears his own voice from behind him. He whips around, wiping the small dribbles of coffee streaming down his chin on his sweater sleeve as he turns.

Connor was standing in the doorway, a very small smile on his face.

“Motherfucker…” Gavin says as he sets down his coffee, storming towards Connor, who took a step into the kitchen.

“I came by to say hi to Hank, but since you’re here I might as well say something.” Connor’s mouth moved to Gavin’s voice as Gavin grabbed Connor by the front of his jacket.

“Delete that _now,_ you plastic prick!” Gavin snarled, but Connor continued.

“I wanted to say thanks. Y’know, for taking a fucking bullet for me. I know I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole to not say thanks. If you can’t hear me then your fuckin loss.”

Gavin felt his cheeks heat up slightly with embarrassment. He slaps his other hand over Connor’s mouth in an attempt to silence him.

“Delete. That. Recording. Stop saying it out loud, I fuckin’ get it!” Gavin says, his voice hushed and frustrated. Connor stopped for a second before carefully placing his own hands on the hand Gavin had over his mouth. Gavin lets Connor’s shirt go and crosses his arms while staring down the android, who straightened his jacket as he was released.

“My apologies, Detective Reed. I thought repeating your apology would demonstrate that I did indeed hear you. My audio-dio-dio-” Connor pauses and rubs his throat for a moment as he temporarily glitches out. Gavin looked away for a moment while Connor ‘re-calibrated’ or whatever. Guess he still had lingering damage, at least for the time being. After a beat Connor takes a deep breath and continues.

“My audio processors are constantly active so that while I am in rest stasis I can replay the audio I missed. I assume you didn’t know this when you spoke to me.” Connor says. “Do know that I think you were being very sweet.”

“Sweet? Don’t fuckin… say that shit. Fuck, just delete it. Don’t play it for anyone, you understand?” Gavin’s voice is a sharp whisper as he looks around the kitchen corner, making sure no body heard him.

Connor gave Gavin a small smile that was way too genuine.

“Prick.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Connor says innocently, walking towards the fridge with an amused smirk taking over the smile. He opens it and retrieves a bottle of thirium before walking back past Gavin, who hadn’t moved from his place near the door.

“I do sincerely appreciate you stopping by. Though I don’t remember the last time someone visited their car or their microwave at the ER. Still think I’m a machine?” Connor asks, pausing at the kitchen entrance.

“I don’t fucking know, alright? I’ll get back to you.” Gavin says annoyed, adjusting his hoodie. “I hope we never have to fuckin work together, but that’s not a very realistic wish. Just next time don’t fuckin get shot, alright?” He says, and even he’s surprised by the concerned tone his voice takes on as he speaks. Connor doesn’t notice, or pretends not to, as he replies.

“Don’t plan to.”

“Good.” Gavin grumbles as he leaves the kitchen. He was sick of having to talk to Connor.

Plopping back down at his desk, he goes back to finishing his report. It’s still hard to concentrate on, those same thoughts about robot sentience filling his mind again. The same nasty feelings from nearly witnessing Connor die. This time, however, Gavin decided not to go back to get his previously needed coffee. He wanted to think about how everything had made him feel. Which was still dumb.

…

Ok, maybe not that dumb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus ends my first multi-chapter fic. I hope you enjoyed! I'm still getting used to writing, so any constructive criticism is welcome!


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